The Golden Age Green Lantern's co-creator gets no true respect today

The Vidette recently wrote about the late artist/writer Martin Nodell, who co-created Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott with the late Bill Finger (who also co-created Batman with Bob Kane), and is still a topic at some modern conventions:

Although renowned comic creator Martin Nodell died, his presence is still felt at comic conventions.

The Green Lantern has gone through many iterations in the decades since its inception. The first version, created by Nodell in 1940, was Alan Scott. When he died in 2006 at the age of 91, his son, Spencer Nodell, and great-grandson, Quinn Nodell, took it upon themselves to continue sharing his work.

According to Spencer Nodell, Martin Nodell spent many years renouncing the comic industry due to a lack of stability. By the time Spencer Nodell was born in 1947, he was trying not to associate himself too closely with the Green Lantern character. It was not until the 1980s that Martin Nodell began to embrace his connection to the character.

Although Martin Nodell renounced the Green Lantern legacy in his early years, Spencer Nodell said that the family was friends with Stan Lee, a renowned creator at Marvel Comics. According to Spencer Nodell, Lee offered Martin Nodell an illustrator position at the company that would become Marvel Comics.

Spencer Nodell explained how his father came to accept his place in the comic book community.

"In the 1980s, when Gary Colabuono, who ran the Chicago show and also owned several comic book shops in the Chicago area, said, 'Oh, you gotta come out to the shows. People wanna see you. They think you're dead,’” Spencer Nodell said.

Martin Nodell spent several decades late in his life attending conventions, leaning into his association with the Green Lantern. Spencer Nodell said that as Martin Nodell grew older, it became harder for him to sign items, so he began signing and stockpiling Green Lantern books in advance to sell to fans.

While it's great the senior Nodell re-embraced his connections as a co-creator with what he first conceived in the Golden Age, one can only wonder what he'd think today if he knew that 6 years after his passing, DC would corrupt his hard work by changing Alan Scott into a gay man, something they unshockingly still stick by till this day, much like how the disgraced Gerard Jones did something similar with Roy Thomas' creation of Obsidian from Infinity Inc? And let's not forget Marvel went a similar route with Iceman, undoubtably encouraged by where DC was going with their stable of characters. When they speak of "many iterations", it's sad but unshocking they won't bring up any of the PC pandering that's brought down charaters like Alan Scott any more than the rest of the comics industry.

In fact, do Nodell's children realize what's happened, and does it sit well with them the retcons by James Robinson tarnish the legacy of their dad's creation even more? If they do, yet choose to remain quiet lest they offend the leftist cultural hijackers, they've only failed their dad's legacy in the long run. Come to think of it, even Thomas, who created the 2 children of Scott in the pages of All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc, is failing his own legacy if he never spoke out against the harm Jones led to over 3 decades ago when he forced his woke beliefs upon somebody else's creations, effectively encouraging abuse and exploitation of past veterans' creations for the sake of politicized agendas.

I highly appreciate Nodell for his contributions to comicdom, but it's regrettable nobody's willing to admit the GL comics themselves have been largely destroyed as reading material, due to all the bad storytelling decisions and editorial mandates that came down the lane after mid-1988. And Alan Scott, much like Hal Jordan, was one of the biggest victims of all the abuse. Anybody who continues to make a shambles of past writers' work is not respecting Nodell's memory.

Gerry Conway dead at 73

Conway, one of the most notable comics writers to come about in the past 60 years, yet also sadly one of the most vehemently leftist, has passed on at age 73. According to ArtThreat:

Gerry Conway, the legendary comic book writer who created the Punisher and penned the iconic death of Gwen Stacy, has passed away today at age 73. The Brooklyn-born icon shaped Marvel’s entire narrative trajectory over five decades. [...]

At just 19 years old, Conway took over The Amazing Spider-Man series, replacing Stan Lee himself. He wrote the flagship title for over three years, producing some of the most consequential Spider-Man stories ever published. During his run, Peter Parker matured from a teenager into an adult grappling with real emotional stakes and devastating losses. Conway understood that superhero stories worked best when characters suffered authentic consequences.

His masterpiece came in Amazing Spider-Man #121, where the Green Goblin murdered Peter Parker’s beloved girlfriend Gwen Stacy after discovering Spider-Man’s secret identity. This moment became the defining tragedy of the Spider-Man mythos, influencing the character’s psychology for decades. Conway didn’t shy away from showing that heroism carries costs.

Be that as it may at the time, this glosses over how, according to author Sean Howe's history book from about 15 years ago, Gwen Stacy's death did cause controversy with some circles, as Stan Lee attended a college convention at the time, and some of the audience was furious. Conway said that after Lee "threw him to the wolves", Conway wasn't up to attending conventions himself for a while. This led to a compromise where Conway himself, IIRC, wrote up the story in 1975 where a clone of Gwen Stacy was developed by the Jackal, and in what became more notorious 2 decades later, the Ben Reilly clone of Peter Parker himself. But was Stacy's death really the most defining tragedy in Spidey history? What about uncle Ben Parker's? Stan's premise was that Peter felt so guilty for not stopping the burglar at the studio building earlier, he decided to become a dedicated crimefighter to try and prevent similar tragedies from occurring. He may have failed to save both Gwen and her dad George later, but the whole notion Gwen's murder at the hands of the Green Goblin was what literally or solely defined Spidey, is an unsurprising exaggeration.

Gerry Conway, working with artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, introduced the Punisher in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 in February 1974. What began as a one-off antagonist evolved into Marvel’s most iconic anti-hero. Frank Castle was originally hired to kill Spider-Man, but Conway gave the character moral agency and a tragic backstory. Later, with artist Tony DeZuniga, he fully developed the Punisher’s origin story in Marvel Preview #2.

The Punisher became far more than a Spider-Man villain. Today, the character anchors multiple film and television franchises. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige highlighted how the Punisher inspired Daredevil and other MCU projects. Conway’s willingness to create morally complex characters transformed how comics approached storytelling.

But this glosses over how Conway, in all his regrettable far-leftism, later disowned Frank Castle and condemned anybody who appreciated the justice-dedicated direction Frank stood for. More on which anon. For now, here's something very awkward that comes up:

Conway brought unprecedented emotional maturity to mainstream comics. He didn’t treat superhero stories as simple escapism. Instead, he explored how ordinary humans cope with supernatural power, loss, and moral responsibility. His work on Tomb of Dracula (which launched Dracula into Marvel canon) and supernatural tales proved comics could handle darker, grittier storytelling. He elevated Carol Danvers in Ms. Marvel #1, laying groundwork for her eventual transformation into Captain Marvel. Conway fundamentally changed how heroes were written across both Marvel and DC Comics, where he co-created Firestorm and wrote Justice League of America for eight years.

And this is where they really make a clumsy claim. Conway never wrote Carol up as the kind of sex-negative figure "feminist" writers of the past 15 years forced her into for the sake of a woke agenda, while appropriating the role of Ms. Marvel for the sake of Islamist propaganda. Conway, galling leftist though he was, did at least depict Carol with dignity as a woman, and artist Dave Cockrum on his part made her beautiful. That's the real way to respect women, though I do wonder if Conway himself changed drastically in the decade before he passed on. And if so, that's a terrible shame. His kowtowing to a woke position on the Punisher certainly suggests what else he might've thought of his own past writings and creations by extension, and that includes Power Girl from 1976 in the DCU.

Now, here's what Comic Book Club has to say, and at least 2 parts to take issue with here:

Along with co-creating The Punisher, Conway is likely best known for his work on the notorious Clone Saga, where he created Ben Reilly and the Jackal. However, a far more impactful story for the publisher was writing the story “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” in The Amazing Spider-Man. He’s also credited with launching Carol Danvers as Ms. Marvel, and pursuant to the recent DC/Marvel crossovers, is responsible for writing what is considered the first ever: Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man. [...]

More recently, in 2020 Conway spoke out about the misappropriation of The Punisher emblem, helping launch a drive to take back in the symbol during the prime of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Wrote Conway, “For too long, symbols associated with a character I co-created have been co-opted by forces of oppression and to intimidate black Americans. This character and symbol was never intended as a symbol of oppression. This is a symbol of a systematic failure of equal justice. It’s time to claim this symbol for the cause of equal justice and Black Lives Matter.”

When leftists want to, they can sure retain some pretty selective memories about what they believe makes a great political position to admire a writer for. And while Conway did conceive the premise that led to the 1995 Clone Saga storyline, he wasn't actually part of the writers group that did all that mess years later. Terry Kavanaugh was one, and Tom deFalco might've been another, though he was certainly EIC at the time that embarrassment came around. What Conway did was very sad, considering how the BLM movement did more harm than good for everybody, yet some in the medium went miles out of their way to apologize for it, Conway included. And that wasn't just remaining "stuck in the past". It was also a show of contempt for many decent Americans.

Deadline says:

His work on Ms. Marvel in the late ’70s launched the series that repositioned Carol Danvers as her own cosmic hero. It established Danvers as one of the most powerful forces in the Marvel Universe and laid the groundwork for her to eventually become Captain Marvel.

I don't think he ever portrayed Carol as powerful as Thor or the Hulk, let alone Superman. Nor did Chris Claremont, who took over the writing shortly after. So what're they trying to prove?

The Hollywood Reporter says:

He had already been working on the Spider-Man-centric Marvel Team-Up when Stan Lee put him in charge of Marvel’s flagship Amazing Spider-Man. He was only 19 at the time. A year into the job, he wrote the two-parter “The Night Gwen Stacy Died,” which killed off Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy and the villain Green Goblin, too. It is considered by many to be one of the most important stories ever published by Marvel, one that still resonates today. A few months later, Conway introduced Frank Castle, aka the vigilante The Punisher, as well as the villain the Jackal. He was so prolific in the 1970s that if you read a Marvel or DC comic back then, there was a very reasonable chance it was written by him.

Oh, he wasn't the only one. There was also Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Steve Englehart and Roy Thomas, and the former told the following:

Wolfman was at first a competitor for writing assignments opposite Conway, later becoming a friend. Posting on Facebook Monday, Wolfman recalled struggling to break into comics and getting work and said it was Conway’s feedback that turned things arounds for him. But accepting feedback from a young teenager was a hit to his ego.

“I was like 19 or 20. Gerry was like 14,” Wolfman wrote. “Why should I listen to this kid? Putting aside ego the answer was simple. He was getting lots of assignments and I wasn’t.”

Wolfman would later become not only a key Marvel writer, working Tomb of Dracula and Fantastic Four, as well as also acting briefly as an editor in chief, he in the 1980s was DC’s top writer, creating New Teen Titans and Crisis in Infinte Earths.

After his unsatisfying stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Conway bounced between Marvel and DC, eventually doing more and more work at the company where he began his writing career. At DC, he wrote for its flagship title Justice League of America for eight years and co-created the heroes Firestorm and Power Girl, the latter Superman’s cousin from an alternate universe.

In 1983, he introduced Jason Todd, a character who took over the mantle of Batman sidekick Robin from the original Dick Grayson. Todd was later controversially killed off after fans voted to off him in a telephone poll, though the character was resurrected in the early 2000s.

Yes, but it wasn't with the best intentions, recalling the onetime writer Judd Winick, also a big leftist himself, admitted he lied about supposedly supporting Todd's survival in 1988 some time after Infinite Crisis went to press in 2005. And if memory serves, not only did Todd see a retcon to his origins before being offed, Killer Croc also underwent something similar - he may have been written as the murderer of Todd's parents pre-Crisis, but post-Crisis, this was changed to Two-Face.

But back to Conway, it's a real shame he had to be such a vocal leftist on social media, because decades ago, he did offer some impressive stories throughout his comics career, and unlike say, Bill Mantlo, I can't recall Conway ever being as heavy-handed with what political allusions he did put in, although when he went on to become a TV writer, I vaguely recall viewing an episode of a TV show where he did inject an allusion to the leftist standings he went by. That aside, while again, he may have proven an impressive comics writer in the time he originally worked on various Marvel/DC series, it could be said that, in a way, he disowned some of his work, and never spoke out against the modern editors like Joe Quesada and Axel Alonso, who took apart much of what even he worked hard to write up. Did it sit well with Conway how J. Michael Straczynski humiliated both Gwen and Mary Jane Watson? I can't recall him ever publicly addressing that badly-aged run on Spidey by JMS, and if Conway wouldn't defend Lee's hard work, or even Jack Kirby's, that says all you need to know how defeatist Conway proved to be in the end. And some could reasonably wonder if it's because Conway's ultra-leftism got the better of him.

All that said, it is sad Conway's gone now. And I wish he hadn't employed social media just so he could take divisive positions better left at the door. Although, in the past year or so before he passed away, Conway did seem to have stopped posting on any social media site. I suppose now that he's gone, it'll be easier to read the comics he left behind, and no longer worry about the Punisher being tainted and made a mockery of by Conway's boilerplate leftism. If anything, I would hope future generations of creators will at least learn from Conway's mistakes, and not take divisive political positions in the forseeable future.

The difficulties faced by specialty stores today in Sacramento

Comstock magazine wrote about today's specialty stores in and around the Sacramento region and the problems they face, which isn't just the 1949 law that prevented minors from buying, but was recently repealed:

Sacramento’s comic shop scene is a friendly one, but the city hasn’t always been a friend to comic book shops. Earlier this year, on Feb. 3, the Sacramento City Council repealed a 1949 ordinance that limited the selling and distribution of comic books to minors. The ordinance, Section 9.12.010, specifically referred to comics featuring crimes, which cut off most of that era’s most popular series, including Action Comics (home of Superman), Detective Comics (Batman), Wonder Woman and many others.

The ordinance hadn’t been actively enforced in decades and is now officially off the books, leaving Sacramento’s children and teens free to peruse the aisles of superhero comics at local stores like Empire’s Comics Vault, Comics & Collectibles and JLA Comics. But local shop owners and artists say that there are still plenty of challenges in the comic world.

One comic shop owner in Sacramento who is very familiar with these realities is Ben C. Schwartz, who opened his Arden Arcade store, Empire’s Comics Vault, in 2003. While he’s a lifelong comic fan and loves his work, he says that it’s not something to be taken on lightly.

“One of the things I think people don’t understand is that there’s a romanticized version of what it’s like to run a comic book store,” Schwartz says. “At the end of the day, it’s still a job, and it’s actually more than just a job because you own your own business.”

Schwartz says one of the biggest challenges to running the store was keeping people engaged, getting them in the store and getting them to come back. Arguably the most difficult aspect is managing his store’s inventory to meet customer demands.

“If people come in and they consistently can never find what they’re looking for, then they’re going to go somewhere else,” Schwartz says. “And if they go to the other shop and they find it, they might not come back here.”

One of the biggest changes shops worldwide have had to deal with came when major publishers like Marvel, DC and Image chose to stop working with Diamond Comic Distributors in 2020. JLA Comics owner Lecho Lopez, who opened his store in the Pocket-Greenhaven neighborhood in 2024, says that while it was more work to deal with multiple distributors, it was still an improvement compared to his experience with Diamond.

“They were the only game in town, so when we let them know, ‘The 1-in-50’s messed up, the 1-in-100’s messed up,’ they would say, ‘Here’s a refund for it,’ but we would still have a customer who requested them here,” Lopez says, referring to the variant copies that retailers can request for 1 or 2 percent of their order, usually featuring alternate covers done by different artists. “When I had the chance to work with someone other than Diamond, I took it because, yeah, they were a little more expensive, but all my books were getting here on time.”

Oh, I should've known, they'd even romanticize variant covers! Well that's not amusing today. All these years after variants made a joke of the industry, and you have only so many instances of buyers hoarding the stuff without reading it, if at all, and either slabbing them or putting them into a vault, this is not improving my perception of what the business is about. Perhaps most telling is that the retailers never say whether they wish the formats would change to paperbacks/hardcovers, and the reporters don't deliver such queries either. What good is coverage like this if they avoid challenging questions?

At least the above retailer did make the wise decision to turn to distributors other than Diamond, and as he hints, they had their problems with late deliveries. I just can't understand why anybody years before had to let them virtually monopolize the market, though what's also annoying is if some retailers got into the profession without a willingness to try other distributors, even if they were more costly. If there's independent bookstores who could do that, why can't comics specialty stores?

In terms of what comics are selling, all three owners noted that one of biggest changes in recent years has been what books are being bought and who is buying them.

Schwartz of Empire’s Comics Vault says that while the majority of readers he sees are in their 30s, he recently noticed an uptick in younger readers. He credits this to parents who read comics sharing them with their kids and notes that nearly 75 percent of these young readers are girls.

“The girls seem to be reading more,” he says. “Some of it is superhero stuff too, but a lot of it is just slice-of-life, which a lot of them gravitate to.”

And that's fine, so long as nobody asks that mainstream superhero comics literally adhere to the kind of PC mindset that's since brought them down over the past quarter century. On which note, the New Teen Titans appealed to plenty of girls/women back in the day, and now, all of a sudden, they're making it sound like nobody was used to adult perspectives and topics at the time such series were printed? And what exact superhero titles are the girls reading now anyway? If it's woke propaganda, that's the bad news.

Independent titles and those outside of the superhero genre have also seen an increased presence on store shelves. Farley of Comics & Collectibles says that while Marvel books still make up the biggest portion of her store’s book sales, independent titles are selling very well.

While it may be impressive independents are doing well, it's decidedly head-shaking if Marvel's are doing even better. What's anybody got to find in their modern output? Don't the local readers know how bad they became since the early 2000s? At the end:

The comics industry as a whole goes through its fair share of ups and downs, but for whatever difficulties they face, all three owners also flatly reject the idea that comic books or comic book shops are dead or dying.

“There’s always the doomsayers. ‘Print media is dead,’ I’ve heard it for the last decade,” Schwartz says. “But it’s not, because there’s nothing like holding a book in your hand. There’s so much more than just looking at the picture and reading the words.”

On this, relax, I highly value printed media. But if the story inside is horrifically bad, do they really think that won't have a long term impact? As expected, the retailers don't have the courage to address merit any more than the interviewers do. And what if more than just looking at pictures happens to be politics? If it's bad forms of politics, then do they expect all audiences, coast to coast, to buy and read it so easily? Again, no discussion comes up about political issues, and while it may have been brought up by a few retailers at the time Axel Alonso was EIC at Marvel, the mainstream press by and large doesn't address whether it was ill-advised. If retailers can't at least address challenging historical issues and whether it can affect comicdom even today, they certainly aren't improving the medium's image.

So-called columnist at ComicBook goes much too far with entry about DC superheroes who allegedly were portrayed killing

Here's a writer at ComicBook who, in his sad attempt to make defamatory smears about 7 superheroes at DC who supposedly killed enemies, he went way overboard in his descriptions without even providing any concrete evidence to prove some were portrayed doing so, and on the other hand, doesn't even criticize one example of writing where this did happen. It begins with the following:

DC Comics molded the concept of superheroes into the unbreakable symbols of morality and hope they are today. Many of the tropes associated with the genre can be attributed to DC Comics, including the no-killing rule. Even when faced with certain death, superheroes will oftentimes refuse to take a life because it sets a bad precedent for how criminals should be dealt with and violates fundamental human rights. However, even in the ideal world of DC Comics, some superheroes are willing to kill their enemies. The reasoning behind these killings can range from the hero having no other choice to their corruption and becoming supervillains. Many of these heroes have racked up high enough body counts to rival or even surpass the deadliest of villains.

Although the idea of superheroes committing genocide sounds unbelievable, it’s happened several times in DC Comics. Sometimes those killed didn’t even deserve it and were instead innocent victims of a hero who turned to the dark side and unleashed their full power. Deaths that were undone or retconned will be included. With heroes like these running around, it’s no wonder that Batman has contingency plans to take down every member of the superhero community.

It's no wonder the columnist wouldn't take an objective view of something so tasteless. Anybody who takes such a casual view of mass murder certainly can't be expected to deliver a perceptive view from a critical perspective. But why, decades after the Phoenix story in X-Men at Marvel, does the columnist think it's "unbelievable" anybody at DC would go miles out of their way to try and ape it? Because in a way, that's exactly what they've been doing all these years themselves, or, even if the body count an individual character's had forced upon their reputation isn't as big, they certainly go out of their way to write up shock value stories where a goodie is forcibly turned into a baddie. That's what they did with Jean Loring, girlfriend/wife of the Atom, in Identity Crisis from 2004, and even before that, they did it with Carol Ferris in the Green Lantern stories from Action Comics Weekly in 1988. Absolutely sick. Now, here's an example proving they're not fans of the characters in focus, starting with Hawkman:

With a hero as long-lived and brutal as Hawkman, it’s unsurprising that he’s racked up an impressive kill count. Whether as a Thanagarian soldier or throughout his numerous reincarnations, Hawkman has killed numerous opponents in battle. Almost every villain Hawkman has fought has had their skull bashed in with his mace. The Justice League still must constantly try to keep the winged hero from killing more enemies. Hawkman’s most egregious act of mass slaughter was when he triggered an avalanche to bury an entire army of sentient undersea monsters before they could attack the surface world. Over his many lifetimes and countless battles, thousands of people have been the victims of Hawkman’s savagery.

Wow, they sure love making clear they're not fans of the Winged Warrior, seeing how they make it sound like he was created from the very start as some kind of serial murderer, infinitely worse than the villains he took on. Carter Hall never smashed skulls with his mace or any other weapon in the Golden Age stories I read, and neither did Katal Hol in the Silver Age stories I read. I don't think they were depicted so horrifically in any stories published up to the turn of the century. And even if they were, whose fault is that? The writers/artists. But again, creator Gardner Fox never did what they claim in the stories he wrote, so the above paragraph is a blatant lie, giving specialty news sites a very bad name. Now, here's their hints they're not Green Lantern fans either:

Hal Jordan’s descent into madness is one of the most infamous instances of a superhero becoming a genocidal monster in comic book history. When Hal’s home, Coast City, was destroyed, the embodiment of fear known as Parallax took advantage of the hero’s grief and corrupted him, turning him into an intergalactic supervillain. Hal then proceeded to slaughter thousands of his fellow Green Lanterns to claim their power for himself. By the end of his rampage, Hal had killed almost every single Green Lantern in the universe. Although many of these Green Lanterns would eventually be resurrected and Hal would be redeemed, many people never forgot what Hal had done.

So Hal's guilty, but the writers/artists/editors (Ron Marz, Darryl Banks and Kevin Dooley) who forced this repellent story upon him have no responsibility to shoulder, and don't owe GL fans an apology? Gee, how considerate. No mention of how Katma Tui, though briefly resurrected in 1993, was put right back in the intergalactic grave soon after (assuming she'd ever actually been revived in the first place), and I can't recall Jim Owsley (Christopher Priest) ever clearly apologizing for being party to that atrocity either. So what's their point? (Saddest part about the ostensible brief revival is that it took place in the unbearable Gerard Jones' short-lived spinoff, GL: Mosaic. So maybe it doesn't count?) Next comes some drivel about the Spectre:

As the embodiment of God’s wrath, the Spectre has punished sinners in biblical proportions. With his infinite reality-warping abilities, the Spectre has inflicted numerous ironic and cruel punishments that killed many criminals or left them praying for death. The Spectre has been delivering this type of divine punishment throughout human history and is even responsible for the destruction of Sodom and the deaths of the firstborn sons of Egypt. The Spectre’s nation-level acts of genocide aren’t exclusive to biblical times either, as he once leveled the entire country of Vlatava, killing millions because he believed that they were already doomed to die soon of war and famine. Even for the personification of vengeance itself, that was egregiously cold-hearted.

On this, I think it can be said the columnist's not a fan of Jerry Siegel or even artist Bernard Baily, who co-created the Ghostly Guardian in the Golden Age. I hesitate to think what they'd say about Percival Popp, the bumbling would-be detective who was added in the middle of the 5 year run as a comedy relief character. Next, here's what's told about Dr. Fate:

Even as far back as the Golden Age, the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Fate, has wielded cosmic levels of power, resulting in numerous deaths. After destroying a series of nebulae that were threatening Earth, Doctor Fate traced them back to their source and discovered that they were created by an alien race called the Globe Men. To stop the Globe Men’s continual attempts to destroy the Earth, Doctor Fate used his magic to throw their planet into the sun. In just the blink of an eye, Doctor Fate exterminated an entire civilization and its billions of inhabitants without a shred of remorse. Thankfully, over time, DC writers eased up on Doctor Fate’s genocidal tendencies.

I've read a lot of the Golden Age tales, and I don't recall seeing those "genocidal tendencies" they speak of. Where do they get off fabricating such lies? Is this an allusion to post-2000 atrocities? Either way, this is disgusting how they even employ a bizarre double-standard: they seemingly acknowledge writers are accountable for what a fictional character's written doing, yet they still make it sound like said character's a real life person. The repulsion continues with this drivel. And then, there's Captain Atom:

Captain Atom is one of the strongest and most ruthless members of the Justice League, whose near-limitless power makes him a serious threat. After suffering from life-threatening injuries that warped his mind, Captain Atom went mad and became the supervillain Monarch. With his immense power, Monarch killed everyone in the city of Bludhaven before making plans for multiversal conquest. To build an army, the Monarch kidnapped numerous heroes from across the multiverse and forced them into gladiatorial death matches, where he recruited the winners. Monarch’s rampage was only halted during a battle with the Monitors and Superboy-Prime that ended with Earth-51 and its billions of inhabitants eradicated. While Captain Atom has since regained his sanity, his time as a villain cost countless innocent lives.

This may have happened years after the Armageddon crossover from 1991, possibly around the time Infinite Crisis was published, but once again, their continued remaining with the shoddy cliche of failing to take an objective view of what they describe is despicable. So too is their take on Doctor Manhattan from the Watchmen, whose cast was actually revived in the past decade, presumably to prevent Alan Moore from ever regaining the rights to the overrated 1987 story:

The power of godhood and a complete disconnection from humanity is a dangerous combination. In Doomsday Clock, after leaving the Watchmen universe, the omnipotent Doctor Manhattan traveled to the DC Universe and sought to make changes there to satisfy his curiosity. After killing Pandora, Doctor Manhattan arranged for Alan Scott’s death so that the Justice Society and its members would never exist. Doctor Manhattan also orchestrated the deaths of Superman’s adoptive parents in a car crash. Finally, he erased the entire Legion of Superheroes’ timeline, making it so that trillions of people were never born. Doctor Manhattan’s machinations threatened to cause the DC Universe to tear itself apart. Luckily, Superman managed to convince Doctor Manhattan to undo all the damage he caused and restore everyone he killed or erased.

Be that as it may, this is still just as insufferable as any of the other examples, and downright boring. Lastly, there's Superboy-Prime, presumably the one seen circa Infinite Crisis:

There was a time when Superboy-Prime was the greatest threat the DC Multiverse has ever encountered. However, in recent years, he’s undergone a significant redemption arc, bringing him back to his heroic roots. Still, even if he’s acting as the new Superman and guardian of Metropolis, the blood on his hands is incalculable. On top of having previously killed Superboy and Earth-2’s Superman, Superboy-Prime is infamous for his multiversal rampage that saw numerous universes destroyed and trillions of people dead. If all that wasn’t enough, Superboy-Prime also killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Green Lanterns. Even with his reformation, Superboy-Prime still struggles with his darker impulses while trying to be a real hero.

This, if so, was doing little more than turning another cast member into a sci-fi variation on the Joker. And again, no questions as to whether this story was ever in good taste to begin with. That's why it's sick, sick, sick.

If there's anything that can be learned from the above drivel, it's that the specialty press has quite a few phony fans running amok, who don't appreciate what prior generations of writers and artists did for entertainment, nor any consideration given that their livelihoods practically depended on the hard work they did. Why does anybody even advertise on these awful news sites, let alone read their "contributors"? What ComicBook posted to their site is some of the most loathsome forms of contempt for the works and creations of classic veterans, and it's stunning they're still in business after all the humiliating columns they've written in tabloid style.

British comics editor Barrie Tomlinson dies at 88

The BBC announced that Barrie Tomlinson, editor of the sports comic Roy of the Rovers has passed on at the age of 88:

Tributes have been paid to the editor of classic British football comic Roy of the Rovers.

Barrie Tomlinson, who was born and lived most of his life in St Albans, died on Tuesday, aged 88, his daughter Jennifer Tomlinson said.

He "absolutely loved doing the comics" and was known for portraying the character of Roy Race as a real person who was "his best friend", she added.

Race, a star striker for the fictional team of Melchester Rovers, initially appeared in the comic Tiger in 1954, and later in his own standalone title until its closure in February 1993.

The Roy of the Rovers strip then featured in the BBC's Match of the Day magazine until its closure in 2001.

Tomlinson, who was also editor of Tiger, wrote the Scorer football strip, which appeared in the Daily Mirror for 22 years, and authored two books, Real Roy of the Rovers Stuff and Comic Book Hero.

He had a great idea to produce sports comics, something I don't think the USA's mainstream has ever seriously capitalized on till this day. The news also tells, interestingly enough:

Book publisher Simon & Schuster UK said Tomlinson was a comics writer and former group editor at IPC Magazines, who wrote strips including Death Wish and Turbo Jones for Wildcat.

He was also involved with Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Scream! comics.

Curious they use the "hero" substitute for "ninja", recalling that's what the UK government under Margaret Thatcher imposed when the merchandise based on Ninja Turtles was first sold in Britain nearly 4 decades ago. If that restriction was eventually abandoned under later governments, isn't it rather silly to continue its use when most people today know the word "ninja" is part of the original title, even in the UK? But, I won't be surprised if Mr. Tomlinson had to make use of the PC retitling years before when he was a comics editor.

Anyway, it's a shame he's gone, but his contributions to sports comics are appreciated, and perhaps the mainstream of the USA should consider putting more emphasis on sports like soccer too in the future.

Comic cookbook about cocktails

The Des Moines Register wrote about author Sarah Becan, who's developed a GN about the origins of and recipes for cocktails, similar to one that was spoken about here earlier:

Becan has spent months researching not only the cocktail recipes themselves, but also their origins. In her illustrated graphic novel "Let's Make Cocktails!", she's collected dozens of standouts for everyone to enjoy. [...]

"Hands down, the best part of making these books is seeing when people make recipes from the book and show it to me, knowing that I was part of making that bowl of ramen possible or I was part of making that drink possible," Becan said.

Who is author Sarah Becan?

Becan began illustrating food because she was thinking about how food and self-worth tied together, she wrote on her website. She got her start creating an autobiographical webcomic titled "I Think You're Sauceome," and would draw meals she and her partner would have in restaurants around Chicago.

Becan said restaurants started noticing her drawings and approached her to make art for commercial work. That eventually led to Becan becoming the illustrator for "The Adventures of Fat Rice" in 2016.

From there, the publisher kept in touch with Becan, later asking her to create a full-length comic book for ramen recipes. That's how the "Let's Make" series was born, with spotlights on ramen, dumplings, bread and now cocktails.

Becan has been nominated twice for the Ignatz Award, a prestigious honor that recognizes outstanding comics and cartooning.

Again, I think the subject is a good one provided it's not alcoholic beverages they're promoting, and so long as it's fruit and vegetable-based, that's what'll make this latest comics cookbook a good one. The comics about ramen and bread are certainly bound to be good choices, and there's plenty of bread recipes I do like, such as onion, sourdough and French rolls.

Monaco's soccer youth federation celebrated 50 years with an interactive comic

AS Monaco announced an interactive comic to celebrate 50 years of its soccer academy training:

Have you ever dreamed of stepping into the shoes of a player joining AS Monaco's youth academy? Now you can, thanks to our interactive comic book created especially for the Academy's 50th anniversary. From a welcome by Sébastien Muet to the triumph on the pitch at the Stade Louis-II, including the moments of doubt, each page lets you discover all the stages experienced by a resident of La Diagonale.

Soccer's definitely a sports topic the USA comics medium could emphasize more often. Good for the academy they thought of this.

Why would this local collector consider Magneto a favorite?

Ynetnews interviewed an Israeli comics reader and merchandise collector, and while his reasons for buying memorabilia and merchandise are interesting, which character happens to be his favorite?

When speaking to Etan, one thing becomes clear: he does not collect for resale. Yes, some items in his collection range from a few shekels to several thousand. Yes, he owns rare pieces, including a massive handcrafted Wolverine head sculpture of which only two exist worldwide, but market speculation does not drive him.

“I don’t buy something because it might be worth more one day,” he says. “I buy it because I love the design.”

His favorite character is Magneto. The choice is personal. Magneto, a Holocaust survivor in Marvel canon, carries ideological complexity. Etan connects deeply to that narrative weight. Still, he does not buy every Magneto piece available. Only the ones that visually resonate.

Granted, he may only collect memorabilia out of respect for art in general, not for money's sake. But as for Magneto, while I know there was a time during the 1980s when Chris Claremont wrote Erik Lensherr reforming and joining Charles Xavier's academy to lead the New Mutants, should a guy who was written committing serious criminal offenses be considered a favorite? In UXM #150, he almost slew Kitty Pryde, who was characterized as being of even more ethnic Jewish background than Magneto was, and in the Fatal Attractions storyline of the early 90s, circa sans-adjective X-Men #25, Magneto ripped all the adamantium out of Wolverine's body. If you go by what's told in this CBR item, Magneto also unleashed a electromagnetic pulse blast that could've resulted in thousands of deaths. Years later though, when crossovers like House of M were published, that's when the real abuse-of-character really came to the fore, as under Brian Bendis's writing, Magneto led to the death of Quicksilver, and the article also notes there was a storyline where he caused the death of Charles Xavier. Viewed within the specific contexts, is somebody like the Master of Magnetism somebody to admire? No, although the writers who brought his characterization down to abysmal levels certainly aren't. Near the Ynet article's end, it's told that:

Collectors live in contradiction. “I’m never satisfied,” he says. “I’m not satisfied that I don’t have enough. And I’m not satisfied that I have too much.”

His home contains six or seven large boxes filled with comics alone. Shelves of Marvel, DC, Alien, Ghostbusters. Pops protected in cases.

And yet, he contemplates selling everything from time to time. The offers have come. Significant ones. He always says no. [...]

He emphasizes discipline over impulse, focus over frenzy, and above all, community. “If someone needs help finding something,” he says, “I’ll help. A collector understands another collector.”

Well I do give him credit for not taking the exact same path as other collectors who do it in hopes of producing millions of dollars worth in classics to be sold cyclically on the speculator market. Even so, if he hoards the comics without reading them, and keeps them wrapped in eternal plastic, then what good is it to collect them at all? Especially in an era where mainstream comics sunk to dismal levels? And I think it's a shame he'd choose Magneto over say, Kitty Pryde, or even Nuklon of Infinity Inc, Moon Knight, Doc Samson from the Hulk, and even Colossal Boy from Legion of Super-Heroes, whom I think was written with a Jewish background too. I suppose it could be worse though: what if the collector in focus considered Harley Quinn a number one favorite? Based on how she was written in the comics after she was shoehorned into the DCU proper at the turn of the century, to make her a major pick would be atrocious in the extreme. Making a fictional character your favorite choice based on the ethnic background alone is not the way to go, and that's a vital lesson some would do well to consider.